


open road map

by tidelinear



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Long-Distance Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:48:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27381436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tidelinear/pseuds/tidelinear
Summary: It surprises Nessa all over again, how the presence of one person can make her house seem smaller and infinitely more comforting.
Relationships: Rurina | Nessa/Sonia
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38
Collections: Femslash Exchange 2020





	open road map

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AtlantisRises](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtlantisRises/gifts).



> i hope you enjoyed! happy femslash exchange to all and to all a swift end to this year

Nessa is sure the other gym leaders think highly of their chosen types but on a day like today, where the air is heavy with heat and clothes stick to Nessa’s skin the second she steps outside, the blessed relief of water within walking distance is the only thing keeping her sane. In the massive pool behind the gym — the one Nessa had personally overseen the digging of, years ago when she settled in Hulbury City, the beginnings of a gym team assembled and Sonia’s steady reassurance at her side — Drednaw expels a blast of water straight up into the air. Nessa tilts her head up to enjoy the shimmering quick kiss of droplets on their way down, evaporating too quickly on her skin.

“I’m heading back,” she announces. Pokemon in various stages of submergement regard her, sleep-dazed in the midafternoon heat. “Anyone joining or are we all going to stay firmly poolside until it rains?”

Arrokuda chitters at her and slips back underwater, splashing a goodbye with his tail. Fair enough, Nessa thinks. There’s a snuffling noise as Drednaw pulls himself to his feet and lumbers over for her to stroke his shell. “Just you and me then, bud.”

She looks at the nitrite levels of the pools before she goes, an unnecessary double-check. Her staff have it handled, but the thought of going home to a rattly old house in the height of summer, sticky and hot in a way it doesn’t often get this near the ocean, is too depressing to look at head on. She makes the rounds once more, until Drednaw rumbles sympathetically at her and she sighs, hands on her hips.

“S’not so bad, is it? Big old house, nice garden. I’m growing tamato berries just for you!” Drednaw shoots her a look that indicates he’s seen exactly how poorly those particular berries are faring but keeps pace with her as she walks down the winding path towards the house.

She’s soaked in sweat when she spies the front door to her house, inherited from the last water type gym leader. It’s a sturdy bungalow five minutes from the port, which may be why the previous owner saw no reason to not have a pool in the backyard. Nessa really should have seen to that before now. Maybe she can convince Drednaw to water gun away the press of hot humid air and keep water gunning it until they wash away into the ocean where she can sprawl on Drednaw’s back and finally, truly cool down.

Drednaw gives a low bellow, interrupting pleasant contemplations of drifting on the open ocean. Squinting at her front lawn brings a bouncing yellow ball into focus. A Yamper, Nessa realizes. _Sonia's_ Yamper.

He spots them just after they spot him and scampers towards Drednaw, accepting a pat on the head from Nessa before launching himself at Drednaw, who rolls with delight as his old friend yaps in merry circles around him.

Sonia, for all that she’d been at loose ends before the Darkest Day fiasco, has always thought of everything her Pokemon could ever want and as Nessa hurries into the foyer, she nearly knocks over two filled water bowls. An ice cube rattles out of one of the bowls anyway, plunking off Nessa's flip flops as she slips them off and goes in search of Sonia.

She follows her nose to the kitchen, the island counter piled high with berries ready to be washed and cut and made into curry. Over the stove, stirring something that steams and fills the kitchen with warmth and spice, stands Sonia in a loose, flowy top that nearly hides the hem of her shorts, washed golden by the sun streaming through large bay windows. Nessa had gotten her that shirt a month ago when she’d dropped by to surprise Sonia in Wedgehurst, and her belly flips in the most pleasant way to see Sonia wear it now.

It surprises Nessa all over again, how the presence of one person can make her house seem smaller and infinitely more comforting. 

“Hi, stranger,” Sonia calls without looking over her shoulder. Nessa can hear the smile in her voice and it propels her off the wall she’s leaning against. She walks into Sonia’s back, arms tight around Sonia’s middle and drops kiss after kiss onto her shoulder blade. Sonia is warmer than usual in Nessa’s arms and Nessa makes a soft noise in the back of her throat.

“Have you been slaving over this hot stove all day?”

Sonia tilts her head onto Nessa’s. “No,” she murmurs. “I was just out in the garden a second ago. The tamato berries are coming in so nicely.”

The tamato berries are Drednaw’s favourite and the bane of Nessa’s existence, too small and never ripening on the tree. “Thank you for saying so,” Nessa sighs, hooking her chin over Sonia’s shoulder to peer into the pot. “What’re you making me?”

“Hi, my beautiful girlfriend whom I love so much, I missed you, I’m so happy to see you, I’m — mm.”

Nessa noses higher up Sonia’s neck. “Hi, my beautiful girlfriend whom I love so much,” she whispers, letting her mouth just brush Sonia’s earlobe.

“Okay,” Sonia says, breathless. Nessa presses her smile to Sonia’s throat, breathing in sun-warm grass from the garden and the honeysuckle that grows wild on the edges of Nessa’s backyard. “Okay, you have to stop or I’m going to burn lunch.” Nessa squeezes in tighter and Sonia’s laugh shivers through both of them. “Baby,” she murmurs, stroking Nessa’s forearm. “I’m here all month. We have time, promise.”

Nessa straightens, pulling Sonia back with her. “All _month_?"

Sonia gives up lunch for lost, switching the dial on the stove to off and turning in the circle of Nessa’s arms to beam down at her. “I’m my own researcher now! Grandma’s got her experiments and I can get started on the legwork anywhere.”

“All _month_ ,” Nessa repeats, enchanted. They've had months together before, of course, Nessa wouldn't have survived the distance otherwise, but those are planned out well in advance. The idea of an unexpected month stretches luxuriously before Nessa, mornings in the pool and hot afternoons in the garden, sticky with the kaisu berries Sonia loves, evenings inside, bad movies on her comfortable old chesterfield, legs tangled with Sonia's with no intention of moving.

“It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Honestly it almost didn’t occur to me until grandma brought it up and then it was all I could think about for a week.”

“You knew for a week?” 

Sonia looks nervous but can’t quite hide the grin. “I wanted to surprise you,” she says, tracing the curve of Nessa’s cheek with a finger. “Bad surprise?”

Never. “I wish you’d told me,” Nessa says, “I would’ve cleaned, for one thing.”

“I like that your house looks so lived in,” Sonia murmurs. “It looks like a place I would — I mean, you know I’m not neat, you know that.” She looks like she’s going to say something else but catches an expression on Nessa’s face that has her leaning down and pressing a sweet kiss to the corner of Nessa’s mouth, then her bottom lip. An arm winds around her shoulders and Nessa sighs into Sonia's mouth.

Sonia’s hair is soft in her fingers as she combs through it, scratches lightly at the back of Sonia’s skull. Sonia makes a pleading little noise in her mouth and pulls Nessa tighter to her, pressing warmth down the length of her and Nessa thinks she has Sonia’s full attention when she pulls back abruptly, tipping her head back and exposing a lovely column of neck. 

“Lunch, fuck, I completely forgot.”

“I’m very distracting,” Nessa says, eyeing the underside of Sonia’s jaw and wondering if she can get away with just a small kiss.

“That’s less funny because it’s true,” Sonia grumbles. “We cannot keep ordering pizza every time I’m here.” Nessa trails a finger down Sonia’s arm. “I’m a good cook, Ness! I have to show this kitchen at some point.”

There’s a note in her voice of something that could become real irritation in a moment, and Nessa takes a breath, makes herself step back. She's held Sonia a little too close, stretched out Rotom calls a little too long, found excuses for too many day trips to Wedgehurst, after what was almost the Darkest Day and she knows it worries Sonia. Neither of them are worriers and she hates to see that little furrow in Sonia's brow. Galar is fine, her gym is fine, she's trounced — gently, professionally, and with great joy — several trainers inspired by the latest champion. Sonia’s here all month. Nessa’s okay.

"I mean it this time, Ness, the pizza guy greeted me by name last time and it—” Sonia’s hands hover uselessly in front of her as Nessa steps back.

Sonia’s quiet for a long moment, and Nessa can’t quite tamp down on the grin and the small, secret relief unfolding in her chest. Sonia shoots her a smile verging on sheepish and takes Nessa’s hands in hers, pressing kisses to the knuckles, tugging her back in the half-step she’d taken away. “Shut up,” she mumbles. “I just meant you ought to let me impress you once in a while.”

“All month,” Nessa reminds her, but she draws Sonia’s hands around her waist and enjoys the weight on her hips, grounding and present. “And you always impress me.”

Sonia’s eyes are soft as she considers Nessa, thumb tracing electric little circles into her skin. “This — this is really your light. You look beautiful all the time but this midday sun. Suits you.”

Sonia has just the trick for saying things that make Nessa’s entire body go squirmy and useless with delight. “I was just thinking on the way back,” Nessa says, breathless in the way she often finds herself around Sonia, “that this is the perfect kind of weather to be on the open ocean.”

Sonia hums, dipping her head enough to press a smile to Nessa’s collarbone. Her breath plays lightly over the sensitive skin of her neck and Nessa shivers, clinging tighter to Sonia’s sides, catching her shirt in one hand and clutching desperately the fistful of cotton in a bid to stay upright. Sonia’s mouth is hot and languid as she follows the jut of Nessa’s collarbone to the hollow of her neck, and heat radiates out in Nessa’s body, warming her, overheating her.

“In something —” A pause to scrape at the skin of Nessa’s neck in a way that has Nessa’s hips jumping, her head tilting further back to give Sonia better access. “Something normal, like a boat, or — ” 

“Why don’t you want me and Drednaw to sail daringly across the — uh,” Sonia nips at her skin, just lightly, and soothes the sting with a warm, amused mouth. “The open ocean?”

Sonia giggles against her neck. “Honestly don’t remember.”

“Can’t have been important,” Nessa agrees, navigating them towards the living room while she still has the presence of mind to do so. They get distracted when Sonia bumps her hip into the counter, and Nessa has to taste the hiss of pain and turn it into the groan of a decidedly different emotion; and again when Nessa nearly trips the leg of a misplaced stool and Sonia catches her before she tips backward, steadying her against the wall as she leaves her hands heavy on Nessa’s hips.

“You know what we’re forgetting?” Nessa says, sweet and low and breathless in Sonia’s ear, enjoying the way Sonia’s eyes have gone dark when she pulls back to look at Nessa. Nessa’s belly rumbles right on cue and Sonia’s eyes snap open. 

“The _fucking_ pizza.”

Nessa smiles helplessly against Sonia’s cheek as Sonia groans in exasperation. In maybe twenty minutes, a sheepish Sonia will call the pizza place and in maybe twenty more minutes, the delivery man — Sato, they’d learned his name too — will greet them with a smile and the best barbecue razz and mago pies in Galar, the one Sonia jokes would have her taking a flying taxi to Hulbury City every other weekend anyway.

In maybe twenty minutes. Right now Sonia is warm and pliant in her arms, in the house that always feels better for her presence and here she’ll stay for the next month. Nessa’s okay.


End file.
